The “word war” between the camps of Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and of former environment and natural resources secretary and mayoral candidate Lito Atienza Wednesday heated up even before the campaign period in the city started as the former’s ally lashed out on the latter for allegedly launching a smear campaign to get votes.

Manila’s Secretary to the Mayor lawyer Rafaelito Garayblas alleged that the camp of Atienza has allegedly engaged in a massive demolition job.

“I hope Mr. Atienza and his supporters stop insulting the intelligence of Manilans,” Garayblas said, claiming that Manila residents are intelligent enough to decipher truth from falsehood and a statement of facts from smear campaign.

The new word war erupted two days after Reynaldo Bagatsing filed graft charges with the Office of the Ombudsman against Lim and other city officials over the P1-billion sale of the Century Park Hotel to Maranaw Hotels and Resort Corp. which is owned by business tycoon Lucio Tan.

In a 26-page complaint, Bagatsing said the sale should be nullified and the respondents penalized because the sale was “manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to the City of Manila.”

“The Century Park Hotel is a five-star crown jewel of the city government and sits on a 4.5-hectare prime property that could easily fetch a P3- billion price tag,” he said.

But Garayblas questioned the timing of the filing graft charges against the Manila mayor even as he claimed that the latest attempt to smear the present city administration smacks of dirty politics and is orchestrated to keep the mayor’s attention away from his pro-poor programs.

"Instead of preoccupying himself with launching smear campaigns or asking his underlings to issue false statements to the media in a desperate attempt to destroy Lim’s reputation, Mr. Atienza should instead present to the residents of Manila what he has done in his nine-year administration," he said.

The city secretary also refuted claims of Bagatsing that the sale of the Century Park Hotel was anomalous, saying that the city government gave everybody interested in buying the hotel a chance to join.

Garayblas also bared that when Bagatsing wrote city hall to question the transaction, he (Garayblas), being the head of the awards committee, wrote back Bagatsing twice.